More than four in ten people over 80 have had Covid-19 vaccine, says Matt Hancock

ore than 4 in ten individuals aged over 80 have had the Covid-19 jab, Matt Hancock mentioned at present.

However he admitted that the roll-out may very well be accelerated if extra provides of the pictures may very well be delivered.

“Now we have now vaccinated over 40 per cent of the entire over 80s,” he advised BBC Radio 4’s Right now programme.

“The roll-out goes in a short time.

“We’re miles forward of wherever in Europe.”

However he declined to offer any figures for weekly provides of the jabs, which is able to inevitably elevate questions over whether or not they are going to be delivered on schedule.

Mr Hancock advised ITV’s Good Morning Britain that the vaccine roll-out was being finished on a “just-in-time” supply system as provides got here in of the Oxford/AstraZeneca and Pfizer/BioNTech doses, of which the Authorities has ordered 100 million and 40 million pictures respectively.

However some GPs are having to placed on pause their vaccination work, having administered it to their at-high-risk sufferers, and Mr Hancock added that the roll-out would go quicker if there have been extra provides.

Newest figures present the Authorities nonetheless must considerably enhance vaccinations to get to not less than two million every week to have the ability to attain the mid-February goal.

“Provide of the vaccine is the speed limiting issue and we have now to make it possible for the vaccine is distributed to all people within the first occasion over the age of 80 after which will probably be over the age of 70 by 15 of February,” defined the Well being Secretary.

“Now we have the capability to get that vaccine out, the problem is that we have to get the availability in.

“The availability will enhance over the following couple of weeks and that implies that the very speedy fee that we’re going at for the time being will proceed to speed up over the following couple of weeks, that’s the reason I’m assured we’re on observe to hit the goal.”

The mid-February aim is to supply the jab to all aged 70 and over, care dwelling residents and workers, frontline well being and social care staff, in addition to different people weak to Covid.

Professor Anthony Harnden, deputy chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, advised Sky Information that measures reminiscent of social distancing will probably be wanted “for some time but”, even amongst those that have acquired the jab.

“We should be very clear that vaccination will stop illness in people however it could not stop these people from transmission to others,” he mentioned.

“So, though you’ve been vaccinated, you won’t be fully protected your self, it’s possible you’ll be in danger of transmitting to others, so I believe we must use additional precautions by way of social distancing, carrying masks, for some time but.”

He added: “There may be gentle on the finish of the tunnel and positively by the start of March we should always see a pointy drop off in hospitalisations and deaths.”

The variety of individuals within the UK to have been given a primary dose of a Covid-19 vaccine as of Tuesday is more than 2.4 million, based on Authorities figures, up from nearly 2.3 million on Monday.

Some 84,187 first doses have been given in Northern Eire, on high of the two,080,280 in England, 91,239 in Wales and 175,942 in Scotland, to offer a UK complete of two,431,648.

To this point, 412,167 second doses have been administered within the UK, together with 393,925 in England, 97 in Wales, 15,288 in Northern Eire and a couple of,857 in Scotland.

In Northern Eire there was a day-on-day rise of 6,182 first doses and 1,339 second doses.